Kobot
Kobot /kobot/ is the native language of the Sylaf people in the provinces of Katšjat, Lija, Nogafê, and Oarıetamf and an official language of the Sylaf Republic, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. It is classified as a Lako-Subric language. Kobot is notable for its agglutinative grammar and its sampling of many European, Asian, and Lako-Subric languages, notably Norwegian, Kobot, and Italian. It is the closest relative to Randot =General information= =Geographic distribution= Official status Kobot is the former lingua franca and one of ten official languages of the Sylaf Republic. There are two main dialects: one spoken in the regions of Katšjat and Oarıêtamf (the standardized version), and one spoken on the island of Kobonî. The Katšjat dialect was previously the national language until the presidency of Porvo Koljobarātan. It is now mainly spoken as a second language by all on Sadhak (except for Katšjat, where it is the primary language, and Morkovo, where it is in equal usage with Randot), a first (mainly elders) or second language in the southern Sylaf islands (100% of the population over 15 speaks it fluently), and as a minority language in the north (only 80% of the population speaks it fluently, compared to 95% fluency in Randot). It is taught in all schools in the beginner levels, but is phased out in favor of more popular foreign languages in schools by age 8. There are three national newspapers in Kobot, compared to 5 in Porvojy Randot. The regulatory body for the language is the International House of the Kobot Language and Southern Sylaf Culture (Înterńavi Husek Kobot Lińgivez os Suvu Sîlâf Tacafaz) Dialects There are two main dialects spoken in the Sylaf Republic. They are * Katšjat dialect (djalak kat'jatiz), the initial basis of Standard Kobot, and * Kobonî dialect (djalek kobonîz). =Phonology= Consonants The following are phonemic transcriptions of Rangyan consonants. Vowels Monophthongs Diphthongs In the Kobot language, because semivowels /j/ and /w/ may follow consonants in initial position in a word, they are sometimes considered to be elements of diphthongs and triphthongs rather than separate consonant phonemes. Triphthongs Orthography Kobot uses a Latin alphabet. The alphabet is mostly phonetic, where letters have one sound depending on their position in the word. Two accents are used: the acute on consonants (´) and the circumflex on vowels (ˆ). An apostrophe is used when the encoding does not allow the acute accent to appear properly. Several special symbols appear and serve a purpose, but are not counted as letters. Using ı Orthographic rules state that two letters with accent marks or apostrophes cannot be next to each other. Vowels must always be accented to show their pronunciation, so the symbol "ı" is used as the apostrophe either before or after a consonant. It is only placed before a consonant if either the letter "i" or "î" succeeds the consonant to make the orthography less confusing. Apostrophes cannot appear at the end of a word. "ı" is used instead. Stress Stress is free, but most popularly is placed on the first or second syllable. =Grammar= Connecting Vowels To connect the cases, grammatical numbers, articles, and demonstrative pronouns to a word more easily when lacking a vowel at the beginning or end of a word, a vowel is added that corresponds to the vowel in the syllable of the noun before or after the extension. When the letter ê is used at the end of a word, but a suffix is added, it changes to "a", rather than be dropped or changed to "ĵ". Word classes and phrase classes Nouns Kobot is a partially agglutinative language. There are no genders, but there is grammatical number and articles. These are attached at different points of the noun. There are numerous noun and prepositional cases whose places in a word vary. Duals are made by adding "tan" to the end of a noun. Plurals are made by adding "n" to the end of a noun. Noun Cases Kobot has 38 noun cases, most of them being prepositional. Two of these are used with time phrases. A case is added by inserting one or several letters into the word's nominative case. There are three possible places a case segment can be placed: at the beginning of the word, before the grammatical number, or at the end of the word. The three positions are denoted in the chart below, respectively, as "beginning", "middle", and "end". Pronouns and Articles Kobot is notable for its use of the infinite fourth person, rather than a standard three-person system. Reflexive Pronouns These are the accusative declensions of the pronouns. Interrogative Pronouns Who - Mej What - Ke When - Kw'andi Where - Ondej Why - Miksi How - Kak How many - Vanti Relative Pronouns Who - Kôgi What - Kôgi When - Kôgi Where - Kôgi Why - Kôgi How - Kôgi How many - Kôgi Indefinite Pronouns (these function as adjectives) some - lego all - todo few - byni several - kilo each - sepe Demonstrative Pronouns and Articles These are connected after the case. k - definite article t - indefinite article x - those (far) l - those (close) g' - these Verbs Verbs are classified into 4 infinitive endings: -a, -o, -y, and -î. They are conjugated by tense, mood, and infinitive ending, but do not by person or number. There are several moods; the most commonly used moods are: indicative, hypothetical, conditional, subjunctive, and imperative. Indicative Mood Conjugations Hypothetical and Conditional Mood Conjugations These two moods are often paired. Subjunctive Mood Conjugations Imperative Mood Conjugations Additional Mood Suffixes Connected with the proper vowel either before (in the Kobonî dialect) or after (in the standard dialect) the imperative verb. Those who are attached to the subjunctive form of the verb are marked with an asterisk (*). Gerunds Copula There are no copulas in Kobot, due to the extensive noun cases. Adjectives Kobot adjectives (except noun adjuncts) end in either ''-a'', ''-i'', ''-o'', or ''-u''. They can be pluralized as, respectively, ''-i'', ''-a'', ''-e'', and ''-o''. They appear before the noun as a separate word (even with cases attached), resulting in only a partial agglutinative language. Noun adjuncts are formed by adding the proper connecting vowel without a consonant, and are pluralized by adding a connecting vowel and z'' to the end. Adjective order In the Kobot language, attributive adjectives usually occur in this default order, with other orders being permissible: # noun adjunct (noun used as adjective) # proper adjective (e.g. nationality, origin, material) # intensifier (adverb of degree) # color # shape # age # opinion # size # head noun Example: ''dîNokia Suoma vagi bla obliko lyve siate niame nitelefonînog' "on these very good old small Finnish black rectangular cell phones from Nokia" Comparative and Superlative The comparative adjective is vaga (pl. vagi). The superlative is mos'to (pl. mos'te). Examples: Vaga iso hundex folıâritemikeg'. "That dog is bigger than this bird." Mos'to iso hundex. "That dog is the biggest." Adverbs Adverbs describe verbs, and are connected to the verb beforehand, with a connecting consonant (k following a, m following e, p following i, v following o, and k' following u). Adverbs and adjectives are the exact same words (ex. w'imo is both fast and fastly). Examples: Viripiavara kon lîloz'a. "I quickly went to the store." Particles Particles in Kobot are merely colloquial and are of free usage, but mostly are put at the beginning or end of exclamations. The most common are siatet, vapoli, and t'ajrio. Numerals Kobot numerals are made of single-syllable clusters of one consonant followed by a vowel. There are ten clusters, one for each digit, which can be combined in the order of increasing place value (ones, tens, hundreds, etc.). Basic numbering There are two ways of writing the numbers in Rangyan, in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) or in Chinese numerals (一, 二, 三). The Arabic numerals are more often used in horizontal writing, and the Chinese numerals are more common in vertical writing. The number 66 (çuçu) is considered lucky in Kobot, is a homophone for pepper, seen in the native religions as a tool used by the devil to burn the eyes of sinners (much of Sylaf cuisine lacks pepper). The number 490 (kit'oxî) is considered lucky, since it sounds similar to the word for rabbit (kitod'i), an animal considered lucky. The number 14 (xînu) is also unlucky, since it sounds like the word for black hole (xin'u). Decimal fractions The word "pont" is used to separate the decimal's numbers from the whole number. Fractional values A fraction can be written one of two ways. The numerator could appear first, with the denominator (declined into superessive case) following it, or the denominator could appear first, with the numerator (declined into subessive case) following it. Ordinal numbers Ordinal numbers are formed by adding tajzı after the cluster Negative numbers Negative numbers are formed by adding sy after the number. Word Order Standard Kobot generally uses a VSO word order, especially in informal situations. In Kobonî Kobot, the VSO word order is used in questions, but an SOV word order is used in general statements. In formal situations and formal speeches in both emails, a VOS word order is used instead. Examples L'okavara du oguimek? "Did you take the cup?" OR L'okavara du oguimek. "You took the cup." (informal Standard) L'okavara oguimek du? "You took the cup" (formal Standard) Du oguimek l'okavara. "You took the cup" (informal Kobonî) Cyrillisation The Vitu method of cyrillisation vituz siric'i, designed for Bosnian-Sylafs, is the official standard of rendering Kobot in Cyrillic letters. It is the colloquial orthography, but not the official orthography, of the island of Kobonî. Cyrillic Kobot is written in only capital letters. =Other= Example texts Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 1) "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." Libri os imih'asaxe nedignit os nelibertin loz'ejat tode peson. "They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." Gom razo os cansianti gahyt vis os bradaz nukimacît hablîtoz'it levis. Featured banner "This language was once featured." furtado lingvag' "Thanks to its level of quality, plausibility and usage capabilities, it has been voted as featured." Per kac'i zalamited kinobařatik'ed os udaz vabafrodar'edin, furtadovara vi. Category:Languages